The usurper Johannes was captured, mutilated, and executed. Ravenna was thus the scene of the Roman Empire’s final act, or at least its final act in the West. At the end of the fourth century, as the power of Rome faded and Constantinople became the seat of empire, a new capital city was rising in the West. Ravenna is easy to get to from the A14.

A riveting history of the city that led the West out of the ruins of the Roman Empire

At the end of the fourth century, as the power of Rome faded and Constantinople became the seat of empire, a new capital city was rising in the West. In this way Ravenna enjoyed a peaceful period when early Christian art could flourish and prolonged imperial history in the West for another 70 years. The great season of Ravenna Roman Empire and Bizantine capital is over. With an Eastern Roman army, Valentinian gained control of the Western Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome, consisting of large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa and West Asia ruled by emperors.
Ravenna is a city in the Romagna zone of Emilia-Romagna. ... (From the Ashes of the Roman Empire): The following resources relate to the end of the Roman Empire and the Fall of Rome. It served as an imperial port for the empire’s massive naval fleet and was even—for a brief time—the capital of eastern Rome. But Ravenna is most famous for its mosaics.

Known in Roman times as Classe, the city was an imperial port for the large naval fleet. Then, in the mid-500s A.D., the Byzantine emperor Justinian decided that Ravenna would be the westernmost pillar of the Holy Roman Empire. Follow the signs for A14D from the A14 East. During the 5th-century, the city became the centre of late Roman Christian art, and following its absorption into the Byzantine Empire in 540, it hosted a renaissance of Biblical Byzantine mosaics during the second half of the 6th century. In 402 the west Roman court had moved from Milan to Ravenna, a city surrounded by marshes, and easily defendable. Odoacer became the first barbarian king of the western empire. Back in Roman times, Ravenna went by the name of Classe. From 1441 to 1509 Ravenna falls into the hands of Venice before the domination of the pope. Afterwards, there was still one Roman emperor, Zeno, who lived in Constantinople. Briefly a capital of eastern Rome during its fall, Ravenna was taken by the barbarians. Ravenna is like no other place in Italy, and the magnificence of its mosaics will leave you breathless - and with a stiff neck.

Solidus, Ravenna 474-475, AV 4.49 g. For the following centuries, the archbishops, the aristocratic municipality and the power of noble families governed the town. Then, in AD 540, the Byzantine emperor Justinian turned Ravenna into the westernmost pillar of the Byzantine Empire. Get in By car . Understand . Ravenna Mosaics. The town offered shelter in highly inaccessible swamps and marshes along with support from the imperial forces of the Eastern Roman Empire. Here, in Ravenna on the coast of Italy, Arian Goths and Catholic Romans competed to produce an unrivaled concentration of buildings and astonishing mosaics. It was the capital of the Western Roman Empire from 402 until its fall in 476. The emperor whom Odoacer deposed had lived in Ravenna, Italy. Ravenna is the home of the Mosaic Basilica, with a delightful small town atmosphere. Although Ravenna's port was already important as the base of the Roman Adriatic fleet, it reached even greater heights when Emperor Honorius moved his court here from Milan in 402, making Ravenna the capital of the entire Western Roman Empire.